On a recent Saturday afternoon, my family and I walked the Magnificent Mile and took in the usual sights: the Silver Man who can dance, the large red American Girl bags that can injure, and the gangs. Yes, the gangs. Those who were in gangs did not identify themselves, but they did stand out: by running into the street in front of cars, by approaching families with strange questions, by trying, it appeared, to intimidate. But there was one thing missing from the mile stretch that we walked on both...

Chicagoans have long called North Michigan Avenue the Magnificent Mile, and on Tuesday, the group that represents businesses there is adopting that name as well. The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association is becoming The Magnificent Mile Association, as the 102-year-old business group seeks to boost its worldwide profile with a simpler and easier-to-remember brand name. The move also aligns with the city's efforts to draw tourists domestically and...

They've got them in Times Square. Tokyo too. Under a measure pending in a City Council committee, some of Michigan Avenue's toniest shopping venues could end up sporting eye-catching jumbo signs. Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, has introduced an ordinance that would allow centers of at least 300,000 square feet with at least 10 tenants to erect flashing signs. Based on those parameters, that could include Water Tower Place, The Shops at North Bridge and 900...

After a three-year absence from the retail landscape in Chicago, Saint Laurent, formerly Yves Saint Laurent, is opening a 2,000-square-foot store in the Waldorf Astoria Chicago hotel Thursday. For a brand that had become known chiefly for handbags and shoes, Saint Laurent Chicago signals not just an expansion of luxury retail on Chicago's Gold Coast but also a brand renaissance under Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane. Boasting 22-foot ceilings and white...

A walk along the Magnificent Mile is like stepping into a wish-book fantasy land. Strolling north on Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River, past the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower and other office buildings, a visitor sees travel agencies beckoning like the mythical sirens to exotic lands or getaway cruises. Offices of United and American Airlines, Airways Rent-A-Car, Amtrak and American Express also are handy for the traveler's needs. Past the restaurants, jewelry stores, shoe stores and...

A key parcel on the south end of Chicago's Magnificent Mile appears headed for redevelopment in an ambitious project that would include a high-end hotel, condominiums, offices and stores between North Michigan Avenue and Wabash Avenue. The National Association of Realtors' board of directors unanimously voted Monday to move forward with a preliminary plan to replace the group's headquarters building, 430 N. Michigan Ave., and space to the west with 1 million to 2 million square feet of...

On certain days when the wind is blowing just so, the smell from the Blommer Chocolate Co. wafts over the Loop. On Thursday, another uniquely Chicago scent returns to Michigan Avenue when Garrett Popcorn opens it new flagship store at 625 N. Michigan Ave. The news, originally reported in June and posted on the Tribune's food blog The Stew on Tuesday, prompted yelps from fans: "Yay! Praise the Lord and pass the Chicago Mix!" wrote "Frater Gregorius." And, from "Carriage...

This one's for the kids. Debby Ryan (“Jessie,” “The Suite Life on Deck”) will perform Nov. 23 at the BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival parade and then take part in a Radio Disney-sponsored meet-and-greet Nov. 24 at Navy Pier's Family Pavilion. Fellow Disney Channel actresses Laura Marano (“Austin and Ally”) and Grace Phipps (“Teen Beach Movie”) will also appear in the Lights Festival. Marano will take part in a ...

Michigan Avenue continues to be a favorite target for overseas investors, as London-based Grosvenor Group Holdings Ltd. prepares to close on the purchase of retail space in the Allerton Crowne Plaza. The 22,900-square-foot space is occupied by two high-profile tenants with strong parent companies: classic apparel-retailer Brooks Brothers, a unit of Enfield, Conn.-based Retail Brand Alliance Inc., and upscale shoe-store Enzo Angiolini, a brand of White Plains, N.Y.-based Nine West...

A key parcel on the south end of Chicago's Magnificent Mile appears headed for redevelopment in an ambitious project that would include a high-end hotel, condominiums, offices and stores between North Michigan Avenue and Wabash Avenue. The National Association of Realtors' board of directors unanimously voted Monday to move forward with a preliminary plan to replace the group's headquarters building, 430 N. Michigan Ave., and space to the west with 1 million to 2...

To find a luxury handbag from Europe, one only has to stroll up Michigan Avenue, then take a left on Oak Street. There's Salvatore Ferragamo, Bottega Veneta, Chanel, Hermes and Prada. But to find Louis Vuitton, the 149-year-old Parisian leathermaker, took a little work. The store was tucked away inside the Water Tower Place mall. Not anymore. Today Louis Vuitton takes its rightful place on the Magnificent Mile, opening a spacious store in the landmark Palmolive...

Bobby Williams had just clocked in as a maintenance worker on the Magnificent Mile when he noticed a scruffy looking man walk past the glass lobby of his building. "I thought 'Why does this guy have the luxury of wandering around Chicago with nothing to do all day and I got to be here for eight hours,' " said Williams, 47, of south suburban Riverdale. As he watched, the man approached a woman who was sitting in Seneca Park, enjoying the Sunday morning and scrolling...

`I'm next to my phone, waiting for them," said the angry and powerful man, talking about frightened business owners on North Michigan Avenue. It was once the Magnificent Mile, but now they're so worried, perhaps we should call it Agita Avenue. He wants something from the business owners. They can refuse him, and he'll let them pay through the nose for the privilege of telling him "no." "But so far, I see no checks coming in," he continued. "I see no agreement...

Is Chicago's Magnificent Mile becoming better known as a hub of violent crime than a shopping destination? That's what the volunteer anti-crime group Guardian Angels claimed Tuesday as it handed out fliers referring to the elegant stretch of North Michigan Avenue as "Muggers Mile. " But Chicago police quickly panned the Guardian Angels' concerns as overblown. The department's crime data suggest strong-arm robberies, like the most recent high-profile one last weekend,...

Retail vacancy along the Magnificent Mile is at its lowest level in more than a decade, defying an unforgiving economic climate that has many merchants closing stores and cutting back on new ones. Unike many suburban shopping centers that have been battered by the loss of large anchor tenants, Michigan Avenue has seen its vacancy rate drop this spring to a minuscule 1 percent of its 3.3 million square feet of retail space, compared with 1.5 percent 12 months ago, according to...

A recent letter writer ( Voice of the People , July 8, “Panhandlers Downtown”) expressed her amazement at encountering poor mothers and children while visiting the Magnificent Mile and asked what kind of city allows this. What would she suggest Chicago do? What would she suggest these women do? Put their children in childcare? Arrest the mothers? Find other parents for the children? Tell them to hide so that we need not think about complicated issues while we are shopping?

Bail was set at $1,000 Saturday for a 20-year-old Oak Park man charged with reckless conduct for frightening behavior on the Magnificent Mile, authorities said. On Friday night Stephen Shedrick, of the 100 block of South Kenilworth in Oak Park, walked through Water Tower Park with a group of people, screaming "F--- the police," authorities said. He then began jumping and flailing his arms in the middle of the street between Chicago Avenue and Pearson Street, while there was...

Wednesday was a day I will never forget. I stood up with hundreds of Chicago retail and fast-food workers, marching through the Loop and Magnificent Mile, chanting "You can't survive on $8.25. " As exciting and empowering as that was, I never imagined that, at 56, I'd be taking to the streets fighting for decent wages. When I moved to Chicago for family reasons 18 months ago, the idea that I'd be working at a fast-food restaurant, earning barely more than the minimum wage, never even remotely...